Variety: Bourbon and Macaw
Region: Mantiqueira de Minas
Farm: Paraiso & Santa Mariana
Elevation: 3800 & 4250 feet
Process: natural and pulped natural
Tasting notes: graham cracker, pepper soda, creamy milk chocolate
This Special Selection Brasil is comprised of two top 10-placing Cocarive Specialty Coffee Competition micro-lots from from the Mantiqueira de Minas growing region of Brasil, Fazenda Paraiso and Santa Mariana. We were introduced to these micro-lots by Sergio Diaz, a coffee grower and Cocarive cooperative member with whom we’ve enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship.
Located at the foot of the Serra da Pedra Branca mountain range, this lot of Fazenda Paraiso was cultivated by Cristiana Maria Carneiro Bustamante Figueira, the daughter of Antônio Fortes Bustamante whose family has operated the farm for over 70 years and produced multiple Cup Of Excellence award winning coffees. This natural processed coffee impressed us with its textured, almost tangible mouthfeel and diverse, layered aromatics.
Paraiso is balanced by a coffee cultivated by Lucas Junquiera Villela on his Santa Mariana farm located on the Minas Gerais side of the Serra da Mantiqueira mountain range. Like Fazenda Paraiso, this lot earned a Specialty Coffee Association score of 89, while also landing a 3rd place finish in the Cocarive Competition. This pulped-natural coffee wonderfully complements Paraiso by contributing a creamy body and a delicate lactic acidity.
In the cup the myriad aromatics of the Paraiso take center stage. We enjoyed graham cracker, a variety of flavors reminiscent of a certain popular “pepper cola” that boasts a PhD, and even a hint of toasted marshmallow, all active on a tactile and pleasantly gritty, textured mouthfeel. Adding the creamy milk-chocolatiness of the Mariana becomes complementary without being dilutive, providing a smooth and thicker base upon which the sharper, more focused aromas of the Paraiso spread wide. It is not too much of a stretch to say the combination of these two lots, with graham cracker and marshmallow from Paraiso and soft milk chocolate from Mariana, can conjure smores, especially toward the finish.
